Past habits: Used to and would

Used to and would are both used to describe something that happened regularly in the past but doesn't happen any longer.

Used to

• We used to live in Paris when I was a kid.
• There didn’t use to be a hospital there. When was it built?

• I used to go swimming every Thursday when I was at school.

Would

• Every Saturday I would go on a long bike ride.
• My teachers would always say “Sit down and shut up!”

Often either ‘would’ or ‘used to’ is possible. Both of these sentences are possible.

• Every Saturday, I would go on a long bike ride.
• Every Saturday I used to go on a long bike ride.

However, only ‘used to’ is possible when we talk about past states.

• We used to live in New York when I was a kid.
• We would live in New York when I was a kid.

 Would is not used with stative verbs such as love, be, understand, and feel. Compare these two sentences with the stative verb love:  

1. When I was a student, I used to love sleeping late on the weekends. (natural and grammatical)
2. *When I was a student, I would love sleeping late on weekends. (awkward and ungrammatical)

 Would is not generally used in its negative and interrogative forms when talking about past habits.

Used to and would activity